URL: http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/et?ac=003707073259657&rtmo=pIlIUQ1e&atmo=gggggg3K&pg=/et/00/10/27/nbse1027.html
Issue 1981, UK Telegraph
Friday 27 October 2000
What the said at the time
"We cannot answer the question: Is BSE transmissible to humans?" Ray Bradley, former head of pathology at the Ministry of Agriculture in a memo written in July, 1988.
"British meat is absolutely healthy. I've not changed my eating habits." Keith Meldrum, Chief Veterinary Officer, 1990.
"British beef can be eaten safely by everyone, both adults and children, including patients in hospital," Sir Donald Acheson, Chief Medical Officer, May 1990.
"It is quite clear to me our beef is safe. My own family eats beef and I have no worry about that. There is no evidence anywhere in the world of BSE passing from animals to humans." John Gummer, Agriculture Minister, Jan 1990.
"I wish to emphasise that there is no scientific evidence of a causal link between BSE in cattle and CJD in humans." Kenneth Calman, Chief Medical Officer, 1993.
"In ordinary usage, safe does not necessarily mean 'no risk,'" - Sir Kenneth Calman, Chief Medical Officer from 1991-98.
"I should not have done that. It was several years after the events that I became aware that for some people the word 'safe' without qualification means zero risk." - Sir Donald Acheson, Chief Medical Officer from 1983 to 91, explaining his public statement in May, 1990
"It would have been the equivalent of planning for a disaster." Keith Meldrum, the Government's Chief Veterinary Officer, on the absence of any Government contingency plans to protect the public in the event of BSE spreading to humans.
"We were almost completely dependent on scientists and the latter were themselves operating on the basis of continuing research at the then frontiers of scientific knowledge." - Lady Thatcher
"She looked at you as though you were the devil incarnate. Her eyes filled with fear...Why did it happen to my daughter? I ask that question every day." - Roger Tomkins, from Tonbridge, Kent, whose daughter Clare, 24, died from vCJD in 1998.